This invention pertains to devices that are used for holding brushes upright for purposes that include drying of said brushes.
Prior brush holders include three basic types; the coil spring type, the clamping type, and a combination of the two.
The coil spring type brush holder essentially has a coil spring in which each brush is held upright by being pressed between individual coils of a coil spring, each end of which is connected to the top of an upright piece, the bottom of each of which is connected to one side of a receptacle for catching water dripping from drying brushes. The top ends of the upright pieces are connected by a crosspiece that goes through the coil spring.
The essential improvement in the present invention over the coil spring type is that brushes having a broader range of handle thicknesses can be held (in the clamping devices) whereas brushes with relatively thick handles would have a tendency to weaken the tension of the coils of the coil spring type brush holder, thereby diminishing its capability of holding thinner handled brushes.
The prior clamping type brush holder has stationary clamping devices, and depending on the distance between each clamping device, the capacity for holding thicker handled brushes is gained at the expense of holding less thinner handled brushes due to the fact that the clamping devices, in order to be kept out of each other's way, would have to be placed further apart from each other, the wider they are opened.
The combination type brush holder has the disadvantage of the coil spring type, and in order to overcome the disadvantage of the prior clamping type, more than one stem holder would have to be placed on the receptacle to obtain the "flexibility" of the present brush tender which needs only one stem holder because the stems can be placed on different positions along the stem holder, in contrast to the necessity of a plurality of stem holders encircling stems, which is what would obtain were the combination type brush holder thus improved.